Flybe, once Europe’s biggest regional carrier, could be flying again by the beginning of 2021 as the airline’s administrators have announced that a deal has been made with investors to sell the company and rescue the brand.
Thyme Opco, a company affiliated with Cyrus Capital, would be the new owner of Flybe’s business assets. These include the airline’s brand and intellectual property, but not much more as the airline got its operating license revoked by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) when it entered into administration back in March. Should the CAA backtrack on its decision, the restored airline would gain access to very valuable slots in Manchester and London’s Heathrow airports.
In a statement, the airline’s new owner said: “While we plan to start off smaller than before, we expect to create valuable airline industry jobs, restore essential regional connectivity in the UK.”
Before the pandemic, Flybe was a very important player in the UK’s regional market, accounting for 40% of the regional flights in the country at the beginning of 2020. What’s more, the airline was the number one in passenger numbers in many British airports, including the transportation of more than 80% of those who traveled through Southampton, Exeter and Belfast City airports.
Despite some of the links which Flybe operated before entering into administration were taken over by other regional airlines, a big number of those disappeared with the carrier. As such, a big amount of users and airports would benefit from the recovery of the carrier’s flights as local economies, jobs, and key links for the UK’s connectivity would be restored.
The British Airline’s Pilots Association (BALPA) received the news with an optimistic point of view. Brian Strutton, the union’s general secretary, commented: “I hope this signals the start of a relaunch of Flybe and I’ve written to all the parties involved to discuss this with them.”
Nevertheless, the deal has yet got to pass regulatory approval from the competent parties before becoming official and the exact amount of the sale has still got to be revealed.
The Exeter-based airline had already struggled long before the pandemic’s effects hit hard on the aviation industry. In 2019, a consortium, which included the Virgin Group and Cyrus Capital, took over the airline in an attempt to bring it back to profitability. However, in January this year, the airline’s owners had to ask for a government bailout, two months after which the airline ceased operations.
